Modifications and Tweaks

Discussion in 'Hyundai Kona Electric' started by electriceddy, Mar 10, 2019.

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  1. Adjusting the latching height alone might help and avoids scratching up the hood fasteners. I'm not seeing a straight line of sight to the orange bit on mine.

    99FE45F5-3A5B-4AC5-A7C2-3E08B1EF837C_1_105_c.jpeg
     
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  3. The other 4 points of the hood line up perfectly, so l feel the nose is a bit short and could be adjusted up a bit. Am I really worried about it, not in the least. I went through the same hood adjustment with Nissan (Leaf #2) and looked great- but never closed the same again.
    It's really not that bad as I made it look in the pictures (I gracefully accept the complements on the photographic affects, I had a light shining on it and took the picture close at the precise angle for maximum exposure).
    I might add my thoughts are Hyundai did an awesome job building this incredible EV. At the time the best range for the money and still highly competitive and cost effective, comfortable to drive. The long favorable list goes on and far outweighs any issues including the tapping noise "repair procedure" I know is in my near future.;)
     
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  4. With winter approaching (our first wet snow started tonight), I thought I'd adopt the suggestion here to install some weather stripping around the charging port door to prevent snow build up inside when driving:
    https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/modifications-and-tweaks.5009/page-3#post-54890

    I found 3/8" wide x 3/16" thick, grey (kinda matches my Galactic Grey Kona) "Frost King" weather resistant weather stripping at Canadian Tire for $4.99. It's pretty sticky on the backside, compresses firmly, yet puffs back up easily. I have 17 ft of it, so even if I replace the gasket each year, it should outlast the car.

    With some selective scissor work, installing a strip around the charging port door took a few minutes. I won't really be able to see the results until driving through the snow for the first time, but I can confirm that the thickness is not so much that the door is difficult to open. The latch can still be pressed in and pop open, with only a slight bit of resistance.
    Gasket Pack.jpg Gasket.jpg
     
    mho, Clamps, navguy12 and 2 others like this.
  5. Good job!
    I found a similar 1/4" thick weather stripping works for me (just along the top) mostly to stop heavy rain, fortunately we don't get that white stuff like you do:D
    https://insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/modifications-and-tweaks.5009/page-2#post-54401
     
  6. hobbit

    hobbit Well-Known Member

    I did a halfass job with thinner foam along the top of my hatch so far, and the other
    day observed that it probably isn't sufficient for snow simply falling. It likely wouldn't
    be much use against driving *into* a snowstorm without getting seriously beefed
    up to the level you've done!

    _H*
     
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  8. With the purchase of my new Kona, I also wanted to upgrade the dashcam I’ve had installed in my old car since 2014. And, watching dashcam videos (check out MegaDrivingSchool on Youtube) made me decide to get a 2 channel, front and rear camera, to cover my rear (literally) if someone hits me from behind.

    I ended up buying a Viofo A129 Duo, which slightly edged out the Aukey DR02 in my comparisons, because it includes GPS and speed info embedding on the video without an external antenna, and also has a wifi app so you can see the video on your phone.

    I started at the rear of the vehicle, and easily pulled the interior plastic trim off the top of the hatch door. Next, I popped out the rubber tube holding all the door wires and fished a zip tie through. I pulled through the cable connecting the rear camera to the front, and left enough slack inside the door so I can reposition the camera down the road.

    I pulled down the rear of the headliner, popping out the 3 retaining tabs, so I could fish the wire across to the driver’s side rear door. The rubber door gasket simply pops off, and I was able to thread the cable along to the front pillar between the metal roof and the headliner.

    At the front pillar, I needed to also feed up a power cable. I decided to use a dashcam hardwire kit rather than using the cigarette lighter. While I intended to use the top right 20A power outlet circuit, the fuse adapter never maintained solid contact, so I moved it down two to the 15A heated steering wheel circuit, both of which are switched power. I fed this power cable up the door.

    The power cable has a choke and the 2 USB ends were pretty hard to fish, so I then unscrewed the centre dome light unit, and wiggled out the side metal tabs (they simply pop into the headliner), and I also unscrewed the passenger visor retainer clip and both the driver’s visor retainer clip and hinge, so that I could pull down the headliner at the front. By doing this, I was able to easily feed both the power and camera cables across the front, avoiding the power wires in the dome light unit which also has the harness for the electronics in the rear-view mirror.

    I placed the dashcam on the passenger side, up as high as possible, and as far left as possible without the centre black windshield etching appearing in frame (the final spot is more right than my first attempt in the picture). The two camera cables pop out of the ceiling just in line with the camera, and the choke is still hidden inside the headliner space.

    I pulled all the excess camera cable to the rear of the car and tucked it in there, tested both cameras were working, and then reinstalled the door gaskets, the rear headliner clips, the front visors and dome light unit. Now the wifi app came in handy as I was able to view the rear camera angle while laying on my back in the hatchback, so as to aim the rear camera correctly. Did that, popped on the plastic rear hatch cover, and voila! A working 2 camera dashcam!

    Total tools required were: A Phillips screwdriver, a pry tool, a voltmeter, a zip tie, some tape, and a 10mm wrench to tighten the hardwire kit negative lead to a bolt under the dash.

    Hope this helps someone down the road who might also want to install a front and rear dashcam!

    Dashcam01.jpg Dashcam02.jpg Dashcam03.jpg Dashcam04.jpg Dashcam05.jpg Dashcam06.jpg Dashcam07.jpg Dashcam08.jpg
     
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  9. Great pictures and very detailed installation, thank you for posting:)
     
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  10. This isn’t really a mod or tweak to the car, but rather how to charge it.

    We have a cottage fairly far from the nearest town, and as a result, have a backup generator there for power outages etc. The nearest public charger is 1 hour away. In 2019, hurricane Dorian knocked out power there for about a week. At home, we also have a generator for outages. Last winter we were out of power for 3 days at -24C, and the year before I think I needed it 4 times over the year.

    While I assume that I’d be smart enough to charge up my car before a likely power outage, I thought I’d work on a backup charging option using the generator.

    At the cottage, I’m limited to 20A 240V at the garage, so I had purchased a “SimplyWork” Level 2 EVSE from Amazon, and a 120V adapter. The EVSE draws 16A at 240V, and 12A if plugged into 120V. I keep this in the car rather than the stock EVSE.

    Last week, I built a simple adapter to take my L14-30 generator receptacle power and provide a 6-20 receptacle needed for the EVSE plug.

    I purchased a NEMA L14-30 male plug, a 6-20 single female receptacle, 2 feet of 12/2 outdoor wire, a plastic box and weatherproof cover at Kent. I connected the 2 hot legs (black + white taped off as a red) and the ground at each end, mounted and tightened everything, and siliconed remaining gaps in the wire entrances. No neutral wire is present.

    Today, I connected the home-built adapter to our Champion Dual Fuel 9kw (Model 100230) generator after a few minutes’ warmup. The EVSE plugged in and lit up normally, so I plugged in the car….. Voila! The car reported charging at 3.5 kW, and didn’t seem to mind the fact I was using the generator. The generator obviously was working, but handled the load easily.

    I only left the car charging for 2 minutes, but now know it works properly. And yes, normal line power is pure sine wave, the generator is modified square, but in a pinch, I now have a working backup, just in case.

    Thought I’d share this experience for anyone considering a similar project.
    1_Geny.jpg 2-Adapter.jpg 3-Adapter.jpg 4EVSE.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2020
    navguy12 and electriceddy like this.
  11. GPM432

    GPM432 Active Member

    Why not just plug your charger you got with the car into the generator won't it draw enough or whatever I may be wrong here
     
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  13. Glad it works for you. Just a small note: the 12/3 flexible cord (looks like type SJ) between the 14-30 male cord cap and the receptacle box should include a green wire that bonds the ground lugs from the cord cap and the 6-20 receptacle to likely the frame of the generator, and may also bond the neutral (not used in this case) to that same point.
     
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  14. Probably to achieve the faster charge rate (~16 A @ 240 V as opposed to ~12 A @ 120 V);)
     
  15. Thanks electriceddy! The outlet's and plug's grounds (and the metal body of the plug itself) are connected with the ground wire as you mentioned. My particular generator has a bonded neutral, (so the white and green are both attached to the frame), and there is no GFCI protection (I think it might be different in the USA). I wasn't sure if the EVSE would like the bonded neutral or not.

    For GPM432, yes, I can/could have plugged in the 120V EVSE plug to the geny's 120V outlet, but I'd be limited to about 1.2 kw. With the 240V supplied on the L14-30 receptacle, I was able to achieve 3.5kW to get me back to civilization sooner. :)
     
  16. I think your EVSE would not work without N bonded to the "ground" of the generator's connector, whether that is actually grounded to earth or not. A simple test of my own EVSE showed that it passes 200uA from L to the ground connection to establish that the ground wire is not just left disconnected.
     
  17. Mruhland

    Mruhland New Member

    I am thinking of trying this on my car this year. Did stripping hold up? From our first bit of snow I found snow inside the charging port area


    Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
     
  18. Mruhland, we had our first few cm of snow this week, sigh... Its melted now, so a brief reprieve.

    On the drive home, I found snow packing in the crack at the top between the door and body, but it didn't make it below into the port. So pretty good, but the real test will be a real storm...
     
  19. Mruhland

    Mruhland New Member

    Is this the same strip as last year or did you redo this year?


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  20. While there certainly seems to be no harm in adding a gasket to the charge port door I've got to say that I have never really seen the need. I've driven through some pretty impressive snowfalls and have never had any issues. Besides, the charge ports are capped anyway so what's the harm from a bit of snow in the compartment? I mean, when you're charging the door is open by necessity and precipitation gets in anyway.
     
  21. Because if ice forms under the edge of the cover, it is prevented from being able to be pushed in to release the latch.
     
  22. I suppose although a firm smack of a fist has always cured that issue for me. :)

    The only truly problematic ice issue I've ever had with the door was when water migrated into the hinge (when it was left open for charging) and formed ice in the hidden channel inside the bumper that the hinge slides into. I couldn't shut it because the ice was in the way and smacking or wiggling the hinge seemed like an invitation to snapping it off completely. It really quite flimsy when stressed. A gasket wouldn't have helped me.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2020
  23. I had to use a hair dryer once to get the charge port for open. We had a crazy blizzard here in New Mexico, which is very uncommon. But I couldn't get the charge port door to open at all. So if I ever get into more serious snow weather I will definitely add some weather striping.
     
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